Derec looked to Ariel, then to Wolruf, then back to Lucius. “Like I said, it depends on your definition. But probably not. Genes are usually part of it, and you don’t have the genes.”
“The test creatures I produced had human genes, yet neither Dr. Avery nor the city robots considered them human. Were they in error?”
“No,” Derec said. “Not about that, anyway. They didn’t have to kill them just because they weren’t human, but that’s beside the point.”
“I agree. The point is, genetics isn’t a sufficient condition, either.”
“Maybe it is,” Ariel put in. “You switched off the genes for intelligence; if you hadn’t done that-if you’d left the entire genetic code intact-then what you came up with would have been human.”
“Even though they would have been created, not from other human genetic material, but from an electronically stored map of that genetic material?”
“That’s right.”
Derec’s eyes widened in sudden comprehension. “I just realized what you would have wound up with. That stored code you found; it had to be the code for a specific person. You’d have gotten a bunch of clones of the same person.”
“But they would all have been human.”
“I guess so. Again, it’s all in your definition. There was a time when clones weren’t considered human, either.”
Lucius paused in thought, then said, “So the definition of ‘human’ also changes over time.”
“That’s right.”
“I am led to the conclusion that my search for a boundary condition which defines a human is doomed to failure. There is no boundary condition. A baby doesn’t start out human, but it grows slowly more so. Eventually, through gradual change, it becomes generally recognized as human, though no two will agree on an exact moment when that label becomes accurate. Similarly, I may become human in some beings’ estimation, but not in others, yet neither estimation is necessarily wrong. Have I reasoned correctly?”
“That’s as close as you’re likely to get, anyway,” Derec said.
Lucius stood up. “I have received enough input for the moment. Thank you.” Without waiting for acknowledgment, he strode from the room. Ariel waited until she heard the door close softly behind him, then burst into a fit of giggles.
“You’ve confused the poor thing beyond hope!” she said between fits.
Derec joined her in her laughter. “He asked for it.”
Wolruf wasn’t laughing. She waited until Derec and Ariel had calmed down somewhat, then said, “Don’t ‘u wonder why ‘e asked?”
“I know why,” Derec answered. “He wants to know who to serve.”
“That doesn’t bother ‘u?”
“Not really. At the worst, if he decides nobody’s human and he doesn’t have to follow anybody’s orders, then we’ve got another independent thinking being among us. True, he was trouble once before when he was on his own, but he’s matured a lot since then. He’s got a social conscience now. I’ve got no reason to believe he’ll be any more of a danger to us now than any other intelligent being would be, and we’ve still got plenty of robots who will follow our orders, so why worry?”
“Famous last words,’“ Wolruf said.
The breakdown happened that same night. It was well after dark but still before bedtime, and Derec was watching Avery trace the expansion of an accelerated chemfet infection in a laboratory rat he had created for the purpose, using the same technology Lucius had used in his human-creating project. The chemfets had replaced most of the peripheral nerve tissue already and were starting in on the brain, and Avery had the rat running mazes every few minutes to test its memory as the chemfets replaced its brain cells.
The rat had just negotiated a maze with apparently undiminished efficiency, and Avery had picked it up to put it back in its cage when the lights dimmed and brightened again as if something had momentarily drawn a heavy load. Derec thought nothing of it; the city’s mutability made for unusual power demands, especially when a building shifted or grew from nothing. He had subconsciously learned that flickering lights meant the neighborhood would probably look different when he stepped outside again.
The lights dimmed a second time, and stayed dim. Derec just had time to think, Boy, there must be a big one going up next door, when they went out completely. The lab was in the interior of the hospital building and had no windows; the darkness was total.
“What the-ouch!” Avery shouted. There followed a thump and the clatter of the rat cage falling off the table. “It bit me!”
“What?” Derec reached for the table, found Avery’s shoulder instead.
“I’ve lost it. Lights!” Avery shouted. “Lights on!”
The voice-switch wasn’t working either.
“I wonder what-” Derec began, but he never finished the question. He became aware of a deep, almost subsonic groan that seemed to come from everywhere at once. It grew in intensity, shaking the floor, slowly rising up the scale into audibility. The floor gave a particularly violent lurch, and half a second later a sudden loud crack echoed through the lab.
Then came a sound like an enormous tree cracking at the base, splintering and popping as it toppled.
Avery’s shoulder suddenly dropped out from under Derec’s hand. “Get under something!” he shouted.
Derec obediently dropped to his knees in the dark and conked his head on the bench. Something furry-the rat, no doubt-squirmed under his hand and scurried away. Ignoring it, Derec reached out, found the kickspace under the bench, and crawled in. Avery was already there, but it was big enough for both of them.
From beyond the lab, transmitted through the floor and walls, came a last groan of overstressed metal, then a relatively silent rush of wind. Then came a peal of thunder that sounded as if Derec’s eardrums themselves had been hit by lightning, and the floor made a sudden rush for the ceiling.
The ceiling got out of the way in time, but just barely.
When the shaking and rumbling was over, Derec crawled out from under the lab bench and stood up, but he barely made it above a crouch before he banged his head again.
“Ouch! Be careful when you stand. The place has caved in on us.”
“Not surprising.” He heard Avery crawling out beside him, groping around in the dark and encountering the lab bench, the stool, which had already tipped over, and the remains of the rat’s cage and maze. A steady ringing in his ears accompanied the sound of Avery shuffling toward the door.
A moment later Avery said, “It’s collapsed even worse over here.”
“I’ll call for help.” Emergency, Derec sent, directing his comlink to the central computer. Derec and Dr. Avery are trapped in Avery ’ s laboratory. Send someone to get us out.
He listened for a response, but none came.
“The computer’s out,” he whispered.
“Impossible. The backup is a network of mobile supervisor robots. Even if the central coordinating unit were destroyed, the supervisors could function independently. They couldn’t all be destroyed.”
“Well, I’m not getting a response.”
“Hmm. Try a direct local command to turn on the lights.”
“Okay.” Lights on, Derec sent.
The blackness persisted.
“No good.”
“Obviously.”
“Now what?”
“Call a specific robot. Call Mandelbrot.”
“Right.” Mandelbrot. Do you hear me?
Yes, master Derec. Are you all right?
“Got him!” Yes, we ’ re all right, but we ’ re trapped in the lab. Is Ariel okay?
She and Wolruf have escaped serious injury; however, I am engaged in bandaging a cut on Wolruf ’ s forehead. I will call assistance to get you out of the laboratory.
“He’s calling help,” Derec echoed. There was a moment’s silence, then Mandelbrot sent, That is strange. I get no response on the supervisory link.